Vintage investments: buy a house in France

Enterprising British buyers are finding profitable new ways to live the
classic French dream, reports Christopher Middleton.

Forget your Caribbean crash-pads and Bangkok bungalows. For many British buyers, France remains the foreign property dream: sunshine, scenery and, mais oui, the food. What’s more, the beating that the euro has taken of late means that now is a great time to buy. On the one hand, France isn’t about to go bankrupt, but on the other, the situation in Greece, Spain and Italy is dragging down French property prices.

All of which explains why British interest in French real estate is on the up. “Between June and September last year, we saw an increase of 192 per cent in requests for our guide to France,” says Richard Way from the Overseas Guides Company. Overall prices in France rose by 4.3 per cent in 2011, and look set to rise this year. There has been such a spike in demand that The Telegraph has even produced a brand new emigration guide to the country, with case studies and essential tips.

Caroline Dyson is one of those who has moved across La Manche. For her it wasn’t so much love at first sight, but at first sound. When she stood on the terrace of her house in Montpezat d’Agenais, Lot-et-Garonne, she thought there was just one thing missing.

“I was looking out on an idyllic view across the valley, and it struck me that all the scene needed was the sound of church bells.

“At that precise moment, the chimes from the village church began.” Her two-year search was over.

“We must have looked at more than 100 houses in that time,” says Caroline, a former PA to the chef Michel Roux. “We knew we wanted a place with a view, on the edge of a village and not more than a 90-minute drive from an airport. Lot-et-Garonne was where all those things came together.”

It’s in the south-west, a hundred miles from the Dordogne, and roughly equidistant from three airports (Bergerac, Bordeaux and Toulouse). The area is becoming popular with UK buyers who long for somewhere to live, rather than just holiday. It is also perfect for those who don’t want to pay Provence prices, or find themselves cheek-by-jowl with other Britons.

She’s not quite the only Brit to have discovered the area’s joys, however. Advertising executive Doug Hart bought not just a house, but a vineyard (with helipad) in the village of Monflanquin, south-west France.

“Provence has become a cliché, says Doug. “Here there’s good wine, good food, and getting about is a joy.” A three-bedroom villa in the area starts at around £330,000.

If that wasn’t enough to get us rosbifs slavering at the mouth, French mortgage lenders are being helpful too. “French banks refreshingly continue to buck the trend and lend on investment properties and second homes,” explains Richard Way. “The wide variety of properties available and an easy commute from the UK have stimulated the market.”

Note that phrase “easy commute”. While the six-hour drive from Calais to your French retreat may initially feel like a great adventure, it becomes a péage pain in the neck on the 10th or 11th occasion.

“We’ve got friends with a place in the south of France who used to drive, but now can’t face it,” says Judy Abbey. She owns a house, bought through Chesterton Humberts, in the Calvados region of Normandy, where a three-bedroom house costs about £450,000.

“They now fly down there each time, but then they have to hire a car. Because that has become so expensive, they only go for three weeks at a time, rather than five.”

Whereas Judy and her husband Jim only have a two-hour drive ahead of them once they leave the Channel Tunnel.

“You can leave after breakfast and be at the house in France just after lunch,” says Judy. “Having crawled along the South Circular on the English side of the Channel, we hardly see a car when we get to France. The region around our house is so unspoilt and beautiful: cows lie underneath trees in the orchard. It’s like the English countryside years ago.”

This might be part of the reason some French cities are going to such lengths to appeal to British people. Pau, in the south-west, has made a Hollywood-scale promotional film, complete with full orchestra and sunlit shots of ramparts and rivers. The city’s chamber of commerce has launched a campaign called “Pau, So British”, harking back to the days when Wellington and his troops settled here in 1814.

“This whole area is like Cornwall in the Fifties or Sixties,” says Pau property owner John Carter. He lives with his wife, Twinkle, in a converted chai (or wine barn) nearby, bought through French Character Homes. “It’s peaceful, it’s rural, yet there is still a thriving French family life here.”

The blend of past and present leads the would-be home buyer to another question: are you looking for a ready-made home or a wreck?

In the case of writers Jane and John Tresidder, the answer was a real wreck in the form of the ramshackle Château du Bérouze, in the Alpine village of Samoëns.

As well as meeting the twin criteria of accessibility and authenticity, the chateau had irresistible romance and history.

“Two sides of the roof had fallen in and it was a pitiful sight,” recalls Jane. “But it came with a wonderful story. In the middle of the 18th century, the captain of the occupying Spanish forces wooed the daughter of the chateau owner, only to abandon her. But later he repented on his deathbed and left all his treasure to her.”

The place also came with potential and during the renovation work the Tresidders had the foresight to develop a corner of the chateau as a three-bedroom holiday apartment.

“It generates income, is self contained and the walls are so thick that you never hear the people in there,” says Jane. “It was going to be demolished if someone didn’t buy and repair it.”

They are far from the only Britons to have taken on the challenge of an unusual French ruin.

“Before we had our present place, we bought an old Normandy pressoir, where the apples would have been pressed to make cider,” says Judy. “Rather than handling the work ourselves, we found a project manager to supervise things and keep an eye on the bills.”

By contrast, other aspects of renovation are much easier in France than the UK.

“French builders are much more reliable than their British counterparts,” adds Judy. “They turn up when they say they will.”

“Yet at 11.45am, on the dot, and without fail, the men on our job would stop work, wash their hands, then go out for lunch at the local restaurant. They wouldn’t return until 1.30 or 2pm. Whatever else may be negotiable, lunch is absolutely sacred.”

France still offers a very different way of life. Combined with reliable labour, easy travel and a favourable exchange rate, the country has rarely looked more appealing. It’s no wonder that so many Britons are taking one small step across the Channel to make a giant leap into la vie française.

Today The Daily Telegraph launches Living in France, the Essential Emigration Guide. It includes information on where to live, employment, schools, health and finance. To receive your free guide, in iPad, Kindle or pdf format, visit telegraph.co.uk/expatguides and register your details